miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2012

Extreme temperatures may raise risk of premature cardiovascular death

Extreme temperatures may raise risk of premature cardiovascular death

Extreme temperatures may increase the risk of premature cardiovascular death.

Heat waves pose a greater risk of cardiovascular-related death than do cold spells.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 pm CT/4 pm ET, Tuesday, September 18, 2012

DALLAS, Sept. 18, 2012 — Extreme temperatures during heat waves and
cold spells may increase the risk of premature cardiovascular disease
(CVD) death, according to new research in Circulation:Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, anAmerican Heart Association journal.

The study in Brisbane, Australia, is the first in which researchers
examined the association between daily average temperature and “years
of life lost” due to CVD. Years of life lost measures premature death
by estimating years of life lost according to average life expectancy.

The findings are important because of how the body responds to
temperate extremes, the growing obesity trend and the earth’s climate
changes, said Cunrui Huang, M.Med., M.S.P.H., the study’s lead
researcher and a Ph.D. scholar at the School of Public Health and
Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University
of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia.

“With increasing rates of obesity and related conditions, including
diabetes, more people will be vulnerable to extreme temperatures and
that could increase the future disease burden of extreme temperatures,”
Huang said.

Researchers collected data on daily temperatures in Brisbane,
Australia between 1996 and 2004 and compared them to documented
cardiovascular-related deaths for the same period.

Per 1 million people, 72 years of life were lost per day due to CVD, researchers said.

Risk of premature CVD death rose more when extreme heat was sustained for two or more days, researchers found.

“This might be because people become exhausted due to the sustained
strain on their cardiovascular systems without relief, or health
systems become overstretched and ambulances take longer to reach
emergency cases,” said Adrian G. Barnett, Ph.D., co-author of the study
and associate professor of biostatistics at QUT. “We suspect that people
take better protective actions during prolonged cold weather, which
might be why we did not find as great a risk of CVD during cold spells.”

Spending a few hours daily in a temperate environment can help reduce heat- and cold-related illnesses and deaths, Barnett said.

Researcher acknowledged that the findings may not apply to other
communities and that they only considered deaths where CVD was the
underlying cause.

Other co-authors are: Xiaoming Wang, Ph.D. and Shilu Tong, Ph.D. Funding and author disclosures are on the manuscript.

Statements and conclusions of study authors published
in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of
the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association’s
policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee
as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding
primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including
pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make
donations and fund specific association programs and events. The
association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from
influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device
corporations are available at www.heart.org/corporatefunding.

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